KARACHI: Judicial authorities and provincial drug inspectors took samples of 26 ‘suspected drugs and medicines’ at the Karachi central jail’s health facility on Friday following a recent wave of “natural deaths” of inmates at the prison.

According to sources, seven prisoners suffering from various diseases have died in the prison over the past six weeks, apparently for want of proper medication.

Jail officials maintained that it was a routine visit by Additional District and Sessions Judge (Malir) Shafi Mohammad Pirzada, but conceded that the authorities did not usually collect medicine samples.

The authorities had decided to collect the samples for testing after receiving reports of a rise in the number of prisoners dying from natural causes.

During the visit, a drug inspector obtained and sealed 26 samples of medicines in the presence of the judge.

“Their visit...is a routine practice that we arrange every month,” IG prisons Nusrat Mangan told Dawn. “There [has been] an increase in the number of natural deaths in recent days and it should be clear if this is occurring due to poor quality of medicine.”

The rise in deaths of inmates, he said, occurred during the recent cold wave. However, it was better if the medicines given to prisoners were analysed, he said.

“I believe it’s good to have quality and chemical analysis of some medicines to ensure their quality,” IG Mangan said, adding: “The additional district and sessions judge and the drug inspector met the inmates, visited the jail’s hospital and collected samples of medicines for analysis. We hope to arrive at a positive conclusion once the results are in.”

The sources said that the judge and the drug inspector had visited the jail following complaints from under-trial prisoners, who had alleged that they were being given substandard and unregistered medicines at the prison’s hospital.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2017